SOURCE: Olson, Ray. Review of Be Seated, Thou: Poems, 1989-1998, by Dannie Abse. Booklist (1 June 2000): 1839.

In the following review, Olson offers high praise of Be Seated, Thou: Poems, 1989-1998.

Welsh, Jewish, socialist, physician, author of some 20 books, and editor of several poetry anthologies, Abse is a man of culture. That stands him in good stead, now that he is retired and old. Ditto, readers of this gathering of his last two British collections of warm, amusing, profound, and varied verse [Be Seated, Then: Poems, 1989–1998]. For Abse can call on the philosophers Schopenhauer, Pufendorf, Hobbes, and Rousseau, list the seven wonders of the world, and cite the nine muses by name and aspect when he replies to a raffle M. C. who asks why he chose the winning number. He can recount the legends of China, Greece, Romantic-era England, and ancient Israel, as well as those of his own...